When we lived in New York, I used to love taking Charlie to the dog park. There were two pretty good ones within spitting distance of our apartment. Washington Square was our favorite – there were almost always other dogs there, they have a separate small dog area and the people were mostly pretty friendly.

Since moving to LA, we’ve struggled to find someplace relatively close by where Charlie can get some exercise and play with other dogs. At first, I liked the Culver City Boneyard because it’s pretty big, but it’s a little far and frankly sorta lame – often when we go there are only one or two other dogs. The West Hollywood Dog Park is right up the hill, but it smells pretty bad (even by dog park standards) and Charlie doesn’t seem to really enjoy it there.

In the past couple of weeks, I think we’ve found our best local option. The Laurel Canyon Dog Park (on Mulholland off of Laurel Canyon) is relatively close, gigantic, comfortable for me and, most importantly, Charlie seems to enjoy it. He actually runs around – something he refused to do at the other LA parks – and even mixes it up a little with the big dogs. We’ve been going during the early afternoon and there are always tons of dogs there. It looks like a lot of the professional dog walkers bring their charges to this park. Initially, I was a little worried that this would mean chaos, but actually it seems like the good type of controlled chaos that is appropriate at a dog park.

Perhaps best of all, he comes home from the park absolutely knackered. Comatose, even. Which gives me time to do my stuff… like write about him!

after yesterday’s interruption, I’m back working from home, with Charlie keeping me company by sleeping by my side:

taking me out for occasional walks in the hot sun:

and hanging out in my lap:

and we’re both happy as can be about it!

In an “office”!

Today is the first day in over six months that I’ve spent working in an office and not at home with Charlie to keep me company. I miss having him sitting on my lap while I work, seeing him sleeping at my feet and the short breaks to take him on a walk.

Thankfully, I’ll be back at home tomorrow, but it does look like I’ll be working away from home a little more often in the coming weeks.

I swear, it’s all fur! See, I told you so:

What a difference a haircut makes!

Charlie and I had a great Charlie-and-I day today. Assuming I get a job at some point, days like today will be hard to come by.

We started with a long morning walk. Then, while I was getting some work done (and playing around on-line), Charlie took a nap in the sun by our front window. Around lunch-time, I grabbed my car keys which woke Charlie right up. He raced me out to the car. Have I mentioned before how much he loves going for a ride?

Our biggest activity of the day was a visit to the Culver City Boneyard. Charlie spent the first bit of time at the dog park growling and baring his teeth at some new “friends”:

Then, he spent the rest of the time hiding under the bench:

Our last stop was Elizabeth’s office for a late lunch. Finally, it was back home where he’s been fast asleep ever since.

These are the types of buddy days that will forever be part of “our” summer!

Two weeks passed and I haven’t written a word. My trip to Canada without the dog was hectic and those promised stories about young Charlie never materialized. In the week since I got home, I recovered from that trip and then snatched Elizabeth away for a few nights away – again without the pup. And guess what, we leave again on Thursday – again sans Chihuahua. At least he’s being well taken care of in my absence.

But today, a Labor Day without work or worries, I’ve got him right where I want him – sleeping on the floor by my side waiting for me to finish up silly stuff like writing this blog…

The days just seem to be passing by. Funny how that happens in LA. In NYC we used to count the days until summer and really value it’s length. Here, it’s pretty much been summer for the entire six months we’ve lived here. I’m not complaining, but when each day looks like the last, it gets difficult to notice days passing by. Not working doesn’t help. How do you count down to the weekend when Wednesday’s schedule is pretty much the same as Sunday’s?

I spend a lot of time at my little folding/card-table “desk” Charlie spends a lot of time sleeping on his bed next to me or wandering around the house looking for someplace else to nap. He loves sitting on my lap while I work. I don’t mind it so much either.

We’re at the dog park most days and take walks around the neighborhood. A lot of days Charlie runs errands with me; he loves getting in the car – I think he loves it enough that the ride is worth it even when he has to wait in the hot car for me to go into a “no dogs allowed” store. On my days at home, he keeps me damn good company. This has certainly been the summer of fun for the two of us.

It wasn’t always like this and won’t always be. At some point I’ll have to get a job. I guess.

We didn’t have a lot going on this week, so we invited Desty to stay for a few nights. She’s cute and we loved having her and she and Charlie had fun together, but like I usually feel after a few nights with just about any houseguest, by the time she was ready to leave, Charlie was hiding in a “safe” spot and probably wasn’t too sad to see her go!

We spent most of this week just getting by. Unlike last week, I didn’t have much work, we didn’t have any pressing errands and even my training is slowing down. The dogs were good company this week.

This week was a busy one for both me and Charlie. And Elizabeth too, actually. Elizabeth’s busy with her usual stuff – planning exciting events all over the country. Things might be slow in the event world in general, but no one’s told Elizabeth that just yet!

For Charlie, he’s in the middle of his third play date with Dusty this week. Actually, I think he might be over her for right now. He was excited to see her at first, but is currently curled up pretty tightly in a ball, mostly ignoring her.

For me, I’ve been in the busiest part of my Ironman training for the last 10 days. Training every day, averaging over 2 hours a day. During the week, it’s more like 1.5 hours a day, with the remainder on weekends, but still, between getting to training, actually training, getting home, showering and recovering and eating (!), it takes up a ton of time. In addition to that, I’ve been doing some real, honest-to-goodness work. I’ve been doing consulting work off-on-and for a couple clients and one of them has been keeping me really busy for the last couple of weeks. (That’s a good thing! Making a little scratch always is.) Also, I picked up another semi-client and have been enjoying working with him.

Busy week, yes. Fun week too.